Web Application Container Server Test

Web Application Container Servers (WACS) provide a platform for hosting SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence platform web applications. For example, a Central Management Console (CMC) can be hosted on a WACS. If this container crashes, then all web applications it hosts will be rendered inaccessible to users, thus adversely impacting end-user operations. In the same way, if this container is not sized with enough processing power to handle the requests it receives, request processing will significantly slowdown, resulting in scores of unhappy users once again. To steer clear off such negativities, administrators should proactively detect the inaccessibility/slowness of the WACS, accurately isolate the root-cause of the same, and promptly fix it. This is exactly where the Web Application Container Server test helps. This test frequently runs status checks on the WACS and brings any sudden change in state to the immediate attention of the administrator. Likewise, the test also tracks the thread pool usage by the WACS and reveals whether/not the pool contains sufficient threads for the current and future use of the WACS. If not, administrators are alerted to the inadequate pool size, so that they can rapidly increase the pool size to avert potential processing bottlenecks.

Target of the test : A SAP BOBI Node

Agent deploying the test : An internal/remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for the WACS running in the node monitored.

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameter Description

Test period

How often should the test be executed.

Host

Host name of the server for which the test is to be configured.

Port

Enter the port to which the specified host listens. This should be the port at which the web application server hosting SAP BOBI listens.

JMX Remote Port

Specify the RMI port number of the BOBI monitoring application. To know the RMI port number of the monitoring application, refer to Enabling the Monitoring Application of the SAP BOBI Platform.

JNDI Name

Specify the lookup name for connecting to the JMX connector of the BOBI monitoring application. To know the JNDI name, refer to Enabling the Monitoring Application of the SAP BOBI Platform.

JMX User and JMX Password

Enter the credentials of an enterprise authenticated BOBI user belonging to the default monitoring users group.

Confirm Password

Confirm the password by retyping it here.

Node Name

Specify the name of the BOBI node being monitored.

Detailed Diagnosis

To make diagnosis more efficient and accurate, the eG Enterprise embeds an optional detailed diagnostic capability. With this capability, the eG agents can be configured to run detailed, more elaborate tests as and when specific problems are detected. To enable the detailed diagnosis capability of this test for a particular server, choose the On option. To disable the capability, click on the Off option.

The option to selectively enable/disable the detailed diagnosis capability will be available only if the following conditions are fulfilled:

  • The eG manager license should allow the detailed diagnosis capability
  • Both the normal and abnormal frequencies configured for the detailed diagnosis measures should not be 0.
Measurements made by the test
Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation

Health state

Indicates the current health state of the WACS in the monitored node.

 

The values that this measure can report and their corresponding numeric values are discussed in the table below:

Measure Value Numeric Value
Danger 0
Caution 1
Healthy 2

If the server is not healthy, then the detailed diagnosis of this measure, if enabled, provides the process ID of the server.

Note:

By default, this measure reports the Measure Values listed in the table above to indicate the health state of the server. In the graph of this measure however, the same is represented using the numeric values only.

Server running state

Indicates the current running state of the WACS.

 

The values that this measure can report and their corresponding numeric values are discussed in the table below:

Measure Value Numeric Value
STOPPED 0
STARTING 1
INITIALIZING 2
RUNNING 3
STOPPING 4
FAILED 5
RUNNING_WITH_ERRORS 6
RUNNING_WITH_WARNINGS 7

Note:

By default, this measure reports the Measure Values listed in the table above to indicate the running state of the server. In the graph of this measure however, the same is represented using the numeric values only.

Server enabled state

Indicates whether/not the WACS is enabled. 

 

The values that this measure can report and their corresponding numeric values are discussed in the table below:

Measure Value Numeric Value
Disabled 0
Enabled 1

Note:

By default, this measure reports the Measure Values listed in the table above to indicate whether/not the server is enabled. In the graph of this measure however, the same is represented using the numeric values only.

Busy server threads

Indicates the number of server threads that are currently servicing requests.

Number

If this measure reaches the configured maximum thread pool size for the server, new requests to the server would have to wait until a server thread becomes free. If this happens often, it may significantly slowdown request processing by the server. In such a situation, you may want to consider resizing the thread pool.

Have any connectors failed at startup?

Indicates whether/not any connector to the Web application container server have currently failed.

 

WACS provides services through HTTP, HTTP through Proxy, and HTTPS. Each of these is treated as a connector in WACS.

This measure will report the value True, if at least one connector failed. The value False will be reported if all connectors are runnings.

The numeric values that correspond to the measure values discussed above are as follows:

Measure Value Numeric Value
True 0
False 100

Note:

By default, this measure reports the Measure Values listed in the table above to indicate whether/not any connector has failed. In the graph of this measure however, the same is represented using the numeric values only.

Auditing events currently queued

Indicates the number of auditing events that an auditee has recorded, but which have not yet been retrieved by the CMS Auditor.

 

Number

If this number increases without bound, it could indicate that auditing has not been configured properly or that the system is heavily loaded and generating auditing events faster than the auditor can retrieve them.  When stopping servers, it is advisable to disable the servers first and wait for auditing events to be fully retrieved and this queue to become empty. Otherwise, they may be retrieved only when the server has been restarted and the CMS polls for them.